Choose your path into bee-centered beekeeping

Level 1 & Level 2

Learn to tend bees with confidence, care, and a deeper relationship to the life of the hive. Begin with the foundations in Level 1, grow your apiary through advanced stewardship in Level 2, or join both for the full learning path.

We're Joy & Eric! 

We’re Joy & Eric! For more than 25 years, we’ve been learning from honey bees: their rhythms, resilience, and the real-world practices that help colonies thrive.

Our courses are rooted in Natural Nest Beekeeping, an approach that works with the bees’ nature by supporting small starts, downward expansion, natural queen rearing, and uninterrupted brood comb.

Level 1 builds a strong foundation in seasonal care, hive observation, bee cycles, and natural Varroa management. Level 2 carries that foundation forward into advanced hive reading, colony expansion, splits, foundationless comb, and long-term resilience.

We’re excited to learn together!

Choose a Path That Fits Your Season

Start Where You Are

Whether you are just beginning or ready to grow your apiary, each course offers a clear next step in natural, resilient beekeeping.

Level 1

Beginner

/Intermediate

For new and growing beekeepers who want to build confidence from the ground up. Learn natural hive setup, seasonal care, swarm awareness, colony health, feeding practices, and the foundations of bee-centered beekeeping.

Best for: Beginners, newer beekeepers, and anyone wanting a stronger foundation.

Start With Level 1

Level 2

Advanced Stewardship

For beekeepers ready to move into the next layer of the craft. Learn to grow your apiary through splits, natural queen rearing, brood health, Varroa strategy, genetics, and long-term resilience.

Best for: Beekeepers with some experience who are ready to expand with care.

Go Deeper With Level 2

The Full Path

Course Bundle

For students who want the complete Raising Resilient Bees experience, from foundational natural beekeeping through advanced apiary stewardship.

Best for: Anyone who wants a full learning pathway with Joy and Eric.

Join Both Courses
Level 1: Beginner/Intermediate

Build Your Natural Beekeeping Foundation

Level 1 helps you understand the hive, the seasons, and the daily craft of tending bees with care. Designed for new and early-stage natural beekeepers, it offers a grounded entry point into Natural Nest Beekeeping and resilient colony stewardship. You’ll learn hive basics, inspections, queen fundamentals, seasonal rhythms, equipment choices, varroa management, feeding, honey handling, and how to respond to common colony challenges.

Outcome: You’ll leave with a clear, calm framework for knowing what to do, when to do it, and why.

Start with Level 1

In Level 1, you'll explore:

  • Natural hive setup and placement
  • Seasonal beekeeping rhythms
  • Swarm management
  • Feeding without relying on sugar as the default
  • Natural Varroa awareness and treatment options
  • Queen events and colony reproduction
  • Best practices for healthy, thriving hives
Level 2: Advanced Stewardship

Grow Your Apiary with Care

Level 2 carries the foundation forward into growth. Designed for experienced natural beekeepers, it helps you make more strategic choices around expansion, queen events, genetics, brood health, and long-term apiary resilience. You’ll deepen your hive-reading skills and learn practical approaches to splits, colony divides, foundationless comb, natural queen rearing, breeding for resistance, varroa strategy, and broader stewardship practices.

Outcome: You’ll leave with stronger reproduction planning, deeper colony awareness, and tools for growing a more resilient apiary over time.

I'm ready for Level 2

In Level 2, you'll explore:

  • Splits and colony divides
  • Natural queen rearing
  • Foundationless comb
  • Advanced hive management
  • Brood health and Varroa strategy
  • Breeding for resistance
  • Long-term planning for resilient apiaries

🐝 Bundle & Save 🐝

Level 1 + Level 2 (Best Value)

 The bundle is for beekeepers who want the complete journey—from strong foundations to advanced stewardship—using the full Raising Resilient Bees approach. You’ll start by building clarity and confidence with inspections, seasonal rhythm, queen basics, natural nest structure, and resilient management—then progress into advanced strategy: foundationless comb, splits, natural queen rearing, resistance-focused thinking, and long-term planning for healthier colonies year after year. It’s the most cohesive way to learn because each level reinforces the next, giving you both the “why” and the “how,” step-by-step. You also get the added bonus of being with us throughout the entire beekeeping season! 

Bundle Price: $900 (save $50 vs. purchasing separately)
Includes both 5-week cohorts, weekly live calls with Joy & Eric, lifetime access to all materials, and access to the community forum.

Purchase the Course Bundle (Save $50)

Course Curriculum 

A guided learning path based on Raising Resilient Bees—designed to help you understand the “why,” master the “how,” and gain confidence season by season.

Level 1: Beginner/ Intermediate (Build Confidence & Core Skills)

Module 1: Getting Started — Orientation, the “why” behind natural beekeeping, and how to begin with the right mindset and setup.

Module 2: Inside the Hive — Colony roles, queen basics, seasonal rhythm, and how to inspect with confidence.

Module 3: Natural Nest Beekeeping — Core framework + hive structure, frames/equipment transitions, and natural varroa foundations.

Module 4: Sustainable Practices — Feeding choices, honey handling, and managing common stressors like robbing.

Module 5: Natural Queen Rearing— Swarms, queen events/queenlessness, combining colonies, predators, and an intro to natural queen rearing.

Sign Up for Level 1 đŸ™đŸ»

Level 2: Advanced (Go Deeper into Strategy, Resilience & Growth) 

Module 1: Advanced Overview — Deeper hive behavior, “evolutionary wisdom,” and how to think strategically as an advanced beekeeper.

Module 2: Advanced Management — Expanding colonies, dialing in management choices, and working confidently with foundationless comb.

Module 3: Splits + Queens + Resistance — Splits/colony divides, natural queen rearing as resilience, what breeding for resistance looks like, and tracking genetics with QR codes.

Module 4: Varroa + Brood Health — Advanced varroa strategy and brood disease understanding through a natural-beekeeping lens.

Module 5: Stewardship Beyond the Hive — Pollination, biodynamic principles/honey, organic history, and value-added products.

Sign Up for Level 2 đŸ™ŒđŸ»
 

 What's Included

Both courses combine practical teachings, seasonal guidance, and Joy & Eric's decades of hands-on experience with bees.

Each course is a 5-week guided cohort with structure, support, and real-time guidance from Joy & Eric.

You’ll receive:

  • 5 pre-recorded modules, released week by week
  • Weekly live calls with Joy & Eric on Thursdays from 4:00-5:30 PM PST
  • Call recordings if you can’t attend live
  • Time for teaching, Q&A, and community connection
  • Access to a course community forum
  • A Level 1 or Level 2 Natural Beekeeping certificate upon completion

Cohort Dates

Level 1 begins Friday, April 24
A 5-week guided cohort focused on foundational natural beekeeping, seasonal care, hive observation, and support as you apply what you’re learning.

Level 2 begins Friday, July 24
A 5-week guided cohort focused on deeper strategy, advanced management, colony expansion, and long-term apiary resilience.

Join Level 1 & 2 (Bundle)

 Kind Words From Our Community

Don Tipping

Farmer & Seedsman, Siskiyou Seeds

"Much akin to the wondrous distillation that honey bees perform while alchemizing nectar from flowers into concentrated pearls of sweet, nutritious, and healing honey, Joy and Eric have distilled decades of earnest, caring, and arduous work tending their apiaries into pearls of valuable wisdom. "

Sarah Red-Larid

Founder & Executive Program Director, the Bee Girl Organization (BGO); past president, Western Apicultural Society.

"Beekeepers and the bee-curious alike will revel in this fresh offering from long-time honey bee stewards Eric and Joy McEwen. In a conversational and approachable fashion, this husband-and-wife team gracefully offers up solutions to some of the most difficult contemporary beekeeping problems."

Rob Keller

Napa Valley Bee Co.

.

"Eric and Joy McEwen cover all the bee basics and the challenges one should expect when getting started. They offer a very genuine depiction, through real-life experiences, of what it takes to manage bees sustainably...a testament to regenerative beekeeping by way of responsible practices, understanding of place, and most of all, the appreciation of deep bee ecology."

Frequently Asked Questions

Learn a More Bee-Centered Way to Tend the Hive

Natural beekeeping invites us into a different kind of relationship with bees, one rooted in observation, timing, and care.

Whether you are building your foundation in Level 1 or growing your apiary in Level 2, these courses will help you better understand the biology, seasonal rhythms, nesting needs, reproductive cycles, and local adaptation of the colony.

The goal is not just to keep bees alive, but also to support colonies in becoming stronger, more resilient, and more fully themselves over time.

Begin where you are, and grow with the bees.

Start with Level 1
Go Deeper with Level 2
Join Both Courses